Pad Thai

Looks like this is going to be my first post on Thai cuisine!(If counting the fried rice on the previous post, that makes this the second post?) My family and I are all really into Thai and Vietnamese food,  majority of the times we eat out, we go to a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, but never did we ever made them ourselves at home. Now that I am back in the UK, it is not as easy to find a Thai restaurant here, so today I decided to try out this recipe making Pad Thai!

You will need:
(2 servings)

200g Pad Thai noodles
3.5 boneless chicken thighs
beansprouts
4 eggs
spring onions
onions
1 clove of garlic
1/2  hot red chili
handful of peanuts
salt and pepper

For the sauce:
1 lime
1 clove of garlic
1/2 hot chili
8 tbsp fish sauce
7 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp Thai sweet chili sauce
(6 tbsp Tamarind sauce) I did not use this because I could not find it in stores here but it tasted just as good without.
2tbsp sugar

Method:
1. Soak the Pad thai noodles with hot boiling water for 5mins. Meanwhile, crush the peanuts and roast it on a frying pan.
2.Cut the chicken thighs into smaller pieces and marinate it with some salt and pepper.
3. Prepare the ingredients: Dice the garlic, spring onion, and hot red chilies. Cut the spring onions to about 3cm long.
4. Prepare the sauce. Crush and dice up the garlic and hot chili. Squeeze the lime to get the lime juice. Then add all the ingredients to the pan and cook till the sugar completely dissolves. Taste it and make adjustments according to your own preference.
5. In a frying pan, add some oil, once heated, add in the spring onions, garlic, and spring onions. Fry it for 1-2 mins then add the chicken. Cover with a lid to allow the chicken to retain the garlic and onion fragrance.
6. While the chicken is cooking, drain the noodles and wash it with cold water.
7.When one side of the chicken is cooked, remove the lid and turn the chicken over, fry it for awhile then add in the hot chili. Add in the noodles and extra oil. Add in the sauce and fry the noodles until well mixed. Add in 4 eggs and keep frying the noodles until the eggs are scrambled and cooked.

Shengjian Mantou 生煎包

Just for the Christmas Holidays, I tried making this Chinese Style Shengjian Mantou as I was craving it while watching Youtube videos and I thought I'll make it right away following the recipes on Youtube.



You will need:

Ingredients for marinating mince pork filling:
Pepper
salt
water
soy sauce
sesame oil
ginger
spring onion
cooking oil

For the dough:
400g Plain flour
40g sugar
4g yeast
200g warm water

Method:

1. First, to create the dough, add in the sugar and yeast and warm and stir it till it dissolves. Then let it sit for 5-10mins. Add in the plain flour and using yours and spatula, knead it till a dough forms and let it rise for 45 mins to 1hr.
2. Meanwhile, marinate the meat using appropriate amounts of the ingredients above. Make sure you add the water little by little at intervals. By adding little bit of water to the mince, it makes it filling more juicy. Stir the meat with utensils until it forms almost like a "paste".
3. When the dough is ready, knead and fold the dough a few times to let the air out and folding it creates more texture. Then divide the dough into the size of a golf ball.
4. Press the golf ball-sized dough flat on your palm while keeping it circular in shape, and add a tbs of mince filling in the center. Then starting at any point of the circular edge, go around the whole circumference picking up the edges and gather it with your fingers towards the middle using pinching motions. Make sure the mince filling is well-sealed inside. Repeat the same with the rest of the douh.
5. Add some oil to a frying pan and let the buns sit in the pan. Fry in pan for 3 mins with lid on and (optional, turn over and fry the other side for another 3 mins).
6. Add 1 cup of water to pan, then cover the pan with a lid for 8-10 mins.
7. Alternatively, you can choose the steam cook version for a healthier option. To do this, add in some hot water in a rice cooker or wok with a steam rack in it. Then place the buns in the steam rack and let it steam for 12-15mins.

Sausage Buns, the Hong Kong Style!

The first semester was over and I finally had more time to do some baking. Today I am sharing with you how to make sausage buns. It's a common bun that you can find in almost every bakery shop you go into in Hong Kong. As I only moved into my flat for a few months and haven't been baking much, I was not used to the oven here and it was a bit burnt on the top. But nevertheless it was still good. Actually while typing this post, I just made another batch and am waiting for it to rise. This time I am going to shorten its time in the oven and hopefully it will turn out just right.

You will need:

(8 buns)

1 egg

130ml warm milk

250g bread flour

3g (1tsp) yeast

1/4 tsp salt

60g sugar

20g butter/ 2tbs oil

4-5 frankfurter sausages

water

Method:

1. Add in the flour, yeast, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Mix. 

2. Warm the milk in the microwave for 10 secs.

3. Beat the egg and add that to the milk.

4. Slowly pour the egg and milk mixture to the mixing bowl as you mix it with your hands or spatula.

5. Knead the dough with your hands and add in the oil/butter, carry on kneading until the dough does not stick to your hands/mixing bowl. If the dough is still too moist and sticky, add in more bread flour little by little at a time so you are not adding in excess.

6. Cover your bowl of dough and let it rise for 30-45 mins.

7. Meanwhile, prepare the sausages by cutting them in half and fry it for a few mins. Line your baking tray with some aluminium foil or parchment paper. Brush it with oil/butter.

8. After 30-45mins, take the dough out and spilt it into 8 equal portions. With each portion, roll it out flat and roll it up like a swiss roll, this can be done roughly, This gives the buns more texture when its baked. Then roll out your "swiss roll" so it is 1.5 to 2 times longer than the length of the cut sausages. 

9. Wrap the sausages around with your dough keeping the two ends at the bottom. The length of the dough should be enough for you to go round the sausage 1-3 times. Repeat the same for all the dough.
10. Let it sit for another 30 mins. Then brush a layer of water on the top or you can use an egg yolk. 

11. Preheat the oven to 180-200C and bake the buns for 12-14 mins.

Sweet Korean Stuffed Pancakes (호떡)

Today's recipe is a street food that I regret not trying whilst in South Korea for vacation a few years ago. It is the sweet Korean stuffed pancakes. Its a chewy sweet pancake with brown sugar, peanuts and cinnamon filling. Since I did not know how the authentic version tastes but I followed a Korean blog recipe making these and I thought it tasted wonderful and kinda taste like the sweetheart cakes (老婆餅) in Hong Kong. There are many different variations to this street food snack where there are different fillings like green tea and cheese.
















You will need:
(15-18 pancakes)

For the dough:
115g Glutinous Rice flour
570g plain flour
6g yeast
1 tsp sugar
125ml warm water
250ml milk
1/2 tsp salt

For the filling:
150g brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
some crushed peanuts (optional)

Other ingredients:
cooking oil


Method:
1. Mix the warm water with the yeast and sugar and let it sit for 5-10mins.
2. Add in the other dry ingredients and then slowly add the milk as you mix and knead.
3. Keep kneading until the dough does not stick to your hand.
4. Let the dough rise at a warm temperature for 1hr.
5. Prepare the filling by mixing in all the ingredients thoroughly.
6. The dough should rise to double of its original size. Then divide the dough into smaller pieces that is the size of a golf ball.
7. Press it slightly flat on your palm and add a tbs of the filling. Then going round and picking up the edges of the dough, gather the dough together so that the filling is well sealed inside the dough. Repeat the process for all the others.
8. Oil the frying pan, add in the pancakes and with gently press the pancake down flat with a spatula. Allow it to cook for around 8-12 mins until it turns golden brown. Then turn the pancakes over and fry the other side for another 8-12 mins so that both sides are golden brown.

Crispy Fried Rice

Most of the recipes I posted previously were results from references I took from many random online recipes and trying it out and see what works best and what can be improved. But this recipe was just a random one that I "created" since I was just grabbing ingredients I can find at home and cooked it according to my gut feelings. I was intending to making ginger fried rice and I did not have enough ginger and barely was there any ginger taste. The fried rice was just bland and the fish sauce caught my sight, and it turned out surprisingly yummy! It's got the Thai/Vietnamese vibe to it. Wonder if an actual recipe like this exist? Maybe in Thai/Vietnamese cuisine I reckon?  

You will need:
(3 servings)

150g mince pork
3 bowls of leftover rice
soy sauce
sugar
cornflour
4-5 slices of ginger
1 spring onion
oil
fish sauce
oyster sauce

I actually had ginger in it like I said I was going to make ginger fried rice but tweaked it half way so I didn't include it as it is not really necessary for this special fried rice that I "created".

Method:
1. Marinate the meat with soy sauce, sugar and corn flour.
2. Mince the ginger and spring onion.
3. In a heated frying pan, add in some oil and ginger. Fry it until you smell the ginger fragrance.
4. Add in the rice, fry until the rice are separated individually. Add in more oil accordingly if the pan is too dry.
5. Remove the rice from the pan. Add in some oil and fry the meat until cooked, Add in some oyster sauce to give more flavouring.
6. Add the rice to the mince pork, keep stir frying it so they are well mixed. Add in more oil and also the spring onions. Stir fry.
7.Here is where the magic comes in-- FISH SAUCE!! Add in 5-6 tsp of fish sauce. Stir fry.
8.To create the crispy effect evenly spread the rice and mince pork on the frying pan and leave it for 2 mins and stir fry. Then repeat once. This should make the rice turn golden brown. Taste it and adjust the taste accordingly.
9. Finally, add in a pinch of salt and stir fry it for another 1-2 mins and you are ready to serve!